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The Pedagogical Legacy of Imam Shamseddine (1/2)
In memory of Layan,
Talin and Remas Mahmoud Hejazi,
killed on November 6, 2023, in South Lebanon.
MAXIME PLUVINET AND MICHEL TOUMA
The Association of Charity and Culture (ACC), founded in 1966 by Imam Mohammed Mehdi Shamseddine, has carried out various educational and social projects since the mid-1960s to assist the underprivileged within the Shiite community. In the first part, This Is Beirut traces the origins of this association, which finds its roots in the personal and religious journey of the former spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shiite community, Imam Shamseddine, who served as vice president of the Higher Shiite Council (HSC) from 1978 to 1993 when he was elected president of this body. He served as president of the HSC up until his death in January 2001.
Najafi Generation
Born in 1936 in Najaf, Iraq, where his father pursued religious studies, the former leader of the Lebanese Shiite community, the late Mohammed Mehdi Shamseddine, lived continuously in Iraq for 33 years, dedicating himself to his religious education and deepening his knowledge. The Shamseddine family holds a significant place in Shia history. Its connection to Lebanon dates back at least to the 13th century, with a distant ancestor, Muhammad ibn Makki al-Jizzini, from Jabal Amil. This specialist in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) is known as Shahid al-Awwal (the First Martyr), but also as Shamseddine (the sun of religion), which became the family lineage’s name.
It was in 1969 that Imam Shamseddine returned to Lebanon alongside a whole generation of Najafi scholars. He, along with Imam Moussa Sadr, co-founded the Higher Shiite Council (HSC) with the aim of managing the community’s affairs, but it most importantly gave Lebanese Shiites a political significance and role they didn’t previously have.
Sheikh Shamseddine always advocated for a moderate Islam, showing openness towards “others,” especially the Christians of Lebanon, respecting the right to differences. He also placed particular importance on the intellectual and personal development of individuals, especially his co-religionists. This was reflected in the educational and social projects he initiated upon his return to Lebanon, projects later sustained by his son, former Minister Ibrahim Shamseddine.
Drawing upon his profound education and broad knowledge, Imam Shamseddine focused a significant part of his thought and action on pedagogical and academic issues. One of his ambitions was to establish a university that reflected Shia specificity while remaining open to the world and other communities. He lamented the sabotage, in the mid-1960s, of the University of Kufa project in Iraq by the former Iraqi President Abdel Salam Aref, who held office from 1963 to 1966. The University of Kufa aimed to be a platform for Arab Shiite presence in Iraq and an opening to modernization and progress for Iraqi Shiites. As a delegate of Najaf’s principal marja’, Sayyed Mohsen Hakim, Imam Shamseddine established a mosque, a public library, a school, a hosseiniya … An inheritance that his son Ibrahim rediscovered after Saddam Hussein’s fall in 2003.
Islamic University of Lebanon
Imam Shamseddine’s dream of establishing a university was revived with the founding of the Higher Shiite Council in Lebanon in December 1967. One of the HSC’s objectives was precisely to create a university. However, various political and security developments that Lebanon witnessed at the end of the 1960s and in the 1970s delayed the project’s realization. It wasn’t until 1994 that Sheikh Shamseddine succeeded in establishing the Islamic University of Lebanon (IUL) when he led the Lebanese Shiite community.
Reflecting his desire to provide young Shiites and Lebanese in general with a solid academic and religious education in a spirit of openness, cultural diversity and excellence, Sheikh Shamseddine worked to make the IUL a trilingual (Arabic, French, English) higher education institution, also a member of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). He aspired for this institution to be “a force for change and modernization in terms of development and scientific research,” as he highlighted in his last work, The Testament (2001). However, the university had to close its doors due to pressure from dominant political forces.
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